# XXIII: This Heart That Flutters Near My Heart explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by James Joyce.

## What happens

The speaker reflects on the beloved's heart as the source of all hope, riches, and happiness, finding joy in closeness and sorrow in separation. The poem draws a parallel to wrens hiding treasures in a mossy nest, suggesting the speaker has similarly stored their treasures before learning sorrow. It ends with a rhetorical question about embracing love even if it lasts only a day.

## Themes in this chapter

### Love and Longing

The poem centers on the beloved's heart as the speaker's hope and riches, with joy found between kisses and sorrow in separation.

### Transience and Loss

The closing question 'Though love live but a day?' underscores the ephemeral nature of love and the wisdom of embracing it regardless.

## Character check-ins

### Narrator

The speaker who treasures the beloved's heart and reflects on love's fleeting nature.

### Beloved

The one whose heart flutters near the speaker's, representing hope and happiness.

## Key lines

> This heart that flutters near my heart My hope and all my riches is, Unhappy when we draw apart And happy between kiss and kiss

The beloved's heart, beating close to mine, is my entire hope and wealth; I am sad when we are separated and joyful in the moments of intimacy.

_Establishes the central metaphor of the beloved's heart as the speaker's treasure and emotional anchor._

> For there, as in some mossy nest The wrens will divers treasures keep, I laid those treasures I possessed Ere that mine eyes had learned to weep.

Just as wrens store various treasures in a mossy nest, I placed all my own treasures there before I ever knew sorrow.

_Compares the beloved's heart to a nest where the speaker has hidden their most precious possessions before experiencing grief._

> Shall we not be as wise as they Though love live but a day?

Shouldn't we be as wise as the wrens, cherishing love even if it lasts only a single day?

_Rhetorical conclusion urging the embrace of love despite its inevitable transience._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters/xxiii-this-heart-that-flutters-near-my-heart
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_11_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_11_se/chapters